Rep. Mchale Backs Plan To Fund Legal Aid For Poor

November 20, 1985|by TIM DARRAGH, The Morning Call

State Rep. Paul McHale, D-133rd District, pledged his support yesterday for a bill that would place some legal fees received by lawyers into interest- bearing accounts - and allowing that interest to be used to pay for civil legal services for the poor.

The idea, he said, would have two benefits. Interest funds would be used instead of tax dollars to pay for the legal services and the total sum collected could be $4 million, which he said is four times greater than the money most recently appropriated by the General Assembly for civil legal services.

McHale spoke about the bill, called Interest On Lawyers' Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, last night at a town meeting at the Church of the Manger, Bethlehem.

During the two-hour presentation, McHale also discussed strengthening the Sunshine Law, a bill that would make seat-belt use mandatory, 911 emergency service, the death penalty, and radon testing.

McHale said the IOLTA proposal is necessary because today, for many Pennsylvanians, equal justice under the law "is not a reality."

State Senate Bill 402, he said, would implement the IOLTA concept. It was reported out of committee yesterday, he added.

If made into law, it would require lawyers to place filing fees, sheriff's costs and other nominal fees into interest-bearing accounts, or as he called it, "comprehensive NOW accounts."

The interest from the accounts would be used to finance civil legal services in Pennsylvania. The principal would pay for the cost of the filing fees and sheriff's costs. Under current law, McHale said lawyers can only deposit the fees into non-interest-bearing accounts in banks. He also said banking lobbyists are opposed to IOLTA because it would essentially take away "free" money from them.

"The bottom line, in an economic sense, is, will it go to the bank . . . or will it go to the poor?" he asked.

"For me," McHale continued, "that is not a very difficult choice."

The interest could be $4 million a year, he told the audience of about 35 people. He said that would "more than adequately fund legal services for the poor."

The last state appropriation for legal services, he said, was $1 million.

McHale further said that IOLTA would involve only relatively small sums of money, not the large sums that lawyers handle for purchasing houses, for instance. He also said persons who pay the fees to lawyers would not be required to report the interest earned on their income taxes.

McHale then attacked the state's so-called "Sunshine Law," calling it possibly the weakest Sunshine law in the United States. He said the open meetings law has been weakened by a ruling from Commonwealth Court declaring that local governing bodies such as school boards, city councils and boards of supervisors would only have to make public the final vote on issues.McHale said the law originally was designed to open to the public all the debate and voting on issues. Exempted from the Sunshine Law are some discussions about personnel and contract negotiations.

He said he regretted that an "intense lobbying effort" helped kill the most recent attempt to address the Sunshine Law, but said, "We ought to persist."

McHale also said that, although state legislators are not required to make public their expense accounts and full voting records, he would provide a full accounting of both for the public.

McHale also said he supports a mandatory seat-belt law, which he said has proven to be effective in New York and other states. Under the provisions of the bill before a state House committee, adults not using the seat belt in the front seat of a car could be fined $20, he said.

McHale, the prime sponsor of the state's child-restraint law, debunked the notion that people should make up their own minds about using seat belts, because they do not want the government telling them what to do and also because their decision only affects themselves.

"That argument would have been valid 100 years ago," he said.

Persons who pay car insurance often ultimately pay for people who don't use seat belts and are in serious accidents, he said.

"It is extremely likely we will get a seat-belt law sometime this session," he added.

In addition, McHale said he supports the idea of installing seat belts in all school buses, although that idea has received much opposition from educational officials as being too expensive, he said.

On other matters, McHale said:

- He supports the current use of the death penalty in Pennsylvania for persons guilty of premeditated murder. He said his support is based in its "deterrent value." McHale said the death penalty is inappropriate for "pure vengeance," even in the case of an unplanned shooting of a police officer. In that case, he said he supports life sentences without parole.